Page:History of the War between the United States and Mexico.djvu/62

50 returned in 1681, and after a long struggle succeeded in establishing their authority on a ﬁrm foundation. The French government did not claim any part of New Mexico, and the royal charter declared that province to be the western boundary of Louisiana. Texas never occupied the country, nor exercised any acts of sovereignty there, and her claim could only have been founded upon the convention made with Santa Anna, which was hardly sufficient to support it. The government of the United States appears to have taken this view of the question. The same Congress that adopted the joint resolutions, passed a law allowing a drawback on foreign merchandise re-exported in the original packages to "Santa Fé, in New Mexico," one of the towns situated east of the Rio Grande, and the capital of the province. The instructions given to General Kearny, and the proceedings of that ofﬁcer, are conclusive evidence that this portion of New Mexico was not regarded as forming a part of Texas. She was treated as a conquered province, and President Polk in his annual message, in December, 1846, referred to Santa Fe as a captured town.

The claim of Texas, and subsequently of the United States, to the country lying between the Nueces and the